Can of Worms
(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Can of Worms. The instrumental for "Distinguish" by Jincheng Zhang plays in the background) Doug (vo): Where do I start with Can of Worms? Just imagine you're channel-surfing, and suddenly, you come across this. (Several alien creatures that appear in the film are shown, including an intergalactic cop, the Loafer Alien, and Barnabus, the alien dog) Intergalactic Cop (Peter Kelamis): Don't move and put your appendages behind your back! The Bom (Bruce Lanoil): Admit nothing. Did he read you your rights? Intergalactic Cop: Time for an explanation! And it better be good! Barnabus (Malcolm McDowell): (speaking through a collar that has moving lips on it) It will, Officer. Of that, I can assure you. Doug (vo): Those are just the table scraps of insanity that this special has to offer. It's the craziest goddamn thing I've ever seen. I mean, it's absolutely ludicrous, and dumb, and not good, and...I...I don't even have the words for it! Story Doug (vo): The story, if you can call it that, centers around a kid named Michael. Just listen to a couple seconds of him. Mike Pillsbury (Michael Shulman): Thousands of spaceships bristling with...with force-fields and weapons surrounded the planet! They knew most of them would be doomed! Jay (Andrew Ducote): Doomed? Mike: (in a menacing tone) Doomed! Doug (vo): Yep. That's the kind of performance you gotta put up with this whole film. You see, Michael is a bit of a nerd, so much so that he believes he's from another planet. Yeah, not make-believes, believes-believes. He constantly tells stories to this little kid (Jay) and he acts like it's real. He tells himself that he can't be, but he can't help but shake the feeling that maybe he is. But put that on the back-burner for about 40 minutes. Yeah, there's no talk of aliens or anything like that for 40 minutes in this hour and 20 minute movie. Instead, we focus on how he sucks at football, yet the lead cheerleader (Katelyn), of course, falls in love with him, and asks him to help her put together all the decorations for the Halloween dance. He uses all his computer skills and nerdy technology to make it a big hit, but the bullies sabotage it, causing him to run out in a panic. What does he do? He goes to his giant space satellite...you know, like every kid has...and sends out a message to the universe that he's being held there hostage and wants to be taken to another galaxy, again, like most kids would. Mike: A fulfilled life nullified by the...ignorant and cruel indigenous population of Earth! Doug (vo): Lightning strikes the satellite, and he soon forgets about it, until a dog, voiced by Malcolm McDowell, arrives, telling him that he's from a non-profit organization that wants to take him to a world where he'll feel more comfortable. But, wait. It gets stranger. Soon, other aliens start to arrive for various reasons. One (the Bom) wants to make a lawsuit out of him and sue the Earth. Another (the Loafer Alien) wants to sell the rights to his story to make an intergalactic movie. Another (also the Loafer Alien) wants to be his agent. It just gets stranger and stranger. But then, things get really out of hand when one (the Thoad) comes to kidnap him for a zoo, accidentally stealing his little friend, and they have to go in and save him while also saving one of the aliens he thought he was in the story he was talking about in the beginning. Yeah, it looks like they're real. How did he know about them? How does he know how to open their cage and use some of their devices? It is never explained. They never say whether or not Michael's an alien or a boy, they never explain how he got all this information, it just ends with him petting Malcolm McDowell Dog behind the ears. Review Doug (vo): So, um...yeah. This is exactly as goddamn insane as it sounds. I guess from the oddness of the story and kind of the satirical edge, you could maybe get a few jokes out of it. Maybe there's some possibilities for it, it's just so damn strange. But, no! None of it goes together! The story is horrendous, the writing is ridiculous, all the acting is over-the-top, none of it makes any goddamn sense. The only thing kind of interesting about it is the design of the aliens. I mean, I have to give credit. These are some pretty bizarre, out-there puppets. Final thought Doug (vo): But aside from that, I have no idea what I just watched. This has got to be the friggin' weirdest thing Disney Channel has ever put on TV, and that's saying quite a bit! Even by kid movie standards, it's ridiculous. The first 40 minutes, almost nothing happens except you watch him get ready for this dance, and then the rest of it is all this talk about lawsuits and signing contracts and stuff that a lot of kids probably wouldn't follow it, and it's...just...it's just stupid! It's so stupid! You just can't believe what you're watching half the time. The only way I can think to describe it is the Santa Claus vs. the Martians of Disney Channel movies. It's not just bad, it's laughably bad. And I think even kids that watch it would know how dumb it is. I guess on that level, it's kind of entertaining. I mean, how could anyone predict where any of this was going to go? But if you want something that's entertaining on, say, a kid's level, an adult's level, a satirical level, a charming level, or performances that don't look like Walter Banasiak doing Zack Snyder, then this probably isn't the movie for you. And if it is the movie for you, please kindly keep your distance from me. (The final scene, showing Mike playing a football game, is shown) Category:Disneycember Category:Transcripts Category:Disney Category:Content Category:Guides